News Corp. Likes Those Dot Coms Where The Kids Hang Out; Buys IGN

from the half-a-billion-here,-half-a-billion-there... dept

A few weeks back, we mentioned that online gaming hub IGN might be the latest target for News Corp in their suddenly insatiable hunger for dot coms. Well, the news coming out today is that Rupert Murdoch's latest dot com prize is, indeed, IGN, for a mere $650 million. Okay, okay, we get it Rupert. You really do believe in the internet. Combined with his purchases of MySpace, Scout Media and (still potentially) Blinkx, it's becoming increasingly clear that News Corp is building up a stable of high traffic sites that cater to highly desirable demographics for advertisers. It certainly takes the idea that Murdoch wants to build the new MTV to a different level. It's not that he's trying to build the new MTV -- he's trying to string together a whole series of new MTVs for the interactive generation. It's an ambitious goal, but we've certainly seen big old media companies jump into the internet with ambitious goals and lots of cash for buyouts a few times before -- and the end usually isn't pretty. Can News Corp really be different this time?